Bicycles were the preferred mode of transportation down the Balboa Peninsula on the Fourth of July. Newport Beach police officers and law enforcement officers from all over the county blocked off the entrance and channeled traffic in through Nwwport Boulevard in the city.

Newport Beach police officers write a ticket to a woman who was drinking on the sidewalk. Police officers and a City of Newport Beach building inspector patrolled the Balboa Peninsula for rooftop parties and out of control parties.

Front yard partiers wave as a police car passes by on the Balboa Peninsula Sunday afternoon. Newport Beach police officers and City of Newport Beach building inspectors patrolled the Balboa Peninsula for rooftop parties and out of control parties.

The residents of this house near the Newport Beach pier were ticketed for having people on the roof. Newport Beach police officers and City of Newport Beach building inspectors patrolled the Balboa Peninsula for rooftop parties and out of control parties.

Newport Beach police officer Dave Sanborn and City of Newport Beach building inspector Paul Sobek talk to a man who they cited for sitting on the roof af a house.

Newport Beach police officers and Orange County Sheriff's deputies arrest a man after a scuffle on Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach Sunday.

A trio of partiers stop to pose for a picture on Balboa Boulevard in Newport Beach Sunday afternoon.

Partiers take their pictures under a giant american flag stretched across the street on the Balboa Peninsula July 4th. Newport Beach police officers and City of Newport Beach building inspectors patrolled the Balboa Peninsula for rooftop parties and out of control parties.

Newport Beach police officers and City of Newport Beach building inspectors patrolled the Balboa Peninsula for people partying on the roofs of houses. This couple was given a ticket.

NEWPORT BEACH – Red, white and blue bunting, beer cans, and American flags were everywhere, as though the boardwalk were some campaign stop in a race for drunk Congress.

Everywhere people could party they were – front yards, decks, even empty lots lined with Dumpsters. A few were partying in places they shouldn’t – rooftops, sidewalks – enough of them to keep the entire Newport Beach Police Department and more than 100 officers from a half-dozen other police agencies busy.

Every Fourth of July, West Newport Beach peninsula turns into an enormous street party.

Characters come out en masse – Spiderman on rollerblades carrying an American flag, a man in a Hooters waitress uniform, women in tutus and men in star-spangled top hats. Nobody wears much clothing.

“For some people, this is the biggest event of the year,” said Sgt. Steve Burdette of the Newport Beach Police Department.

City officials hope to “change the culture” of the celebration over the next several years “to have less of that Mardi Gras atmosphere and make it more family-friendly,” said Jay Johnson, who was working his first full day as chief of police.

Although Mard Gras beads were prevalent, none of the behavior associated with those beads was seen during a six-hour ridealong with one enforcement team.

Burdette, Office Dave Sanborn, and building inspector Paul Sobek were one of six teams charged with keeping parties under control, mainly by keeping people off roofs and sound systems turned down.

Other groups included 19 four-person squads on foot, two bike unit details, beach teams on ATVs, fireworks enforcement teams, bike teams, motorcycle teams, plainclothes teams, plus a team at a mobile booking station set up at City Hall to bus people directly to county jail.

Burdette’s team headed out a little before 1 p.m. in an umarked Ford 500, heading down West Balboa Boulevard, which was closed to traffic. Even pedestrians were forbidden from entering Balboa at West Coast Highway, which forced most of them to walk an extra mile around.

The reason, Johnson said, was to disperse the crowd that usually gathers at the intersection.

As the enforcement team headed down Balboa, Sobek spotted trouble right away.

“We’ve got some roofers over there,” he said.

As Sanborn turned the car around on West Balboa Boulevard, he heard a Sublime bassline bumping from a house, and decided to make a quick stop, as he’d given them a warning the day before.

Like all other tickets issued in the west Balboa Safety Enhancement Zone, this fine would be for triple the usual amount. But the tenant took it in stride, signing his ticket without fuss.

One of his guests yelled out something, but it wasn’t an argument: “It was good music, though.”

Burdette smiled and nodded.

On most of the streets, though, people seemed to have gotten the message. Only a handful of houses had loud music, and the team issued only three citations for open containers all afternoon.

Few tried to argue their tickets early in the day, but as it got later and more booze was consumed, some tried to drop names. One young lady mentioned that she’d dated a Newport Beach cop; another suggested, in all seriousness, that Sanborn should tear up a ticket because her high-school age brother was in an Explorer program with the California Highway Patrol in Northern California.

It didn’t work.

Final numbers of arrests and citations for the day were not immediately available; by 8 p.m., 56 people had been arrested. That number would grow, Burdette said, after the sun went down and the troublemakers came out.

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